Education

Dissertation - Gender and Generation: determinants of the father-daughter relationship.

Summa Cum Laude • GPA 4.0 / 4.0 overall • Class rank – #5 out of 2600

Work Experience

Private Practice, 15+ years, 216 N. 4th St. Emmaus, PA 18049. Providing Brief, Cognitive-behavioral, and Interpersonal Psychodynamic Therapy, as well as Couples and Family interventions throughout the lifespan.

Family Answers, 5 years, Allentown, PA. Provided individual and couples counseling to a diverse patient population. Co-therapist in Families In Transition Program. Supervised doctoral students from area Universities. Providing assessments utilizing psychological tests. Developed and taught a prison parenting program.

Correctional Medical Services, Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, 1 year, Clinton, NJ. Provided assessments and evaluations to Maximum and Minimum security inmates.

Private Practice, 4 years, 21 E. Main St., Clinton, NJ 08809. Provided short- and long-term, Interpersonal Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy to a diverse population. 

Mental Health Institute, JFK Medical Center, 3 years, Edison, NJ. Provided individual, couples and family outpatient therapy to a culturally diverse population of adults and children on a part-time basis. A wide variety of diagnoses were encountered such as Mood, Anxiety, Conduct, Oppositional, Eating and Personality Disorders.

Jersey City Medical Center, Pediatric Psychology, 1 year, Jersey City, NJ. Provided detailed written and oral psychological reports derived from psychological testing. Gave feedback to patients (children), parents and other professionals. Also provided psychotherapy to children, parents and families.

APA-approved Internship

Philadelphia Energy Company (PECO), 6 months, Philadelphia, PA. Provided individual therapy, counseling and psychological testing in the company’s Employee Assistance Program. Worked with voluntary as well as fitness-for-duty clients. Duties included Drug and Alcohol counseling and case management, physical and mental health disability cases, psychotherapy involving grief, depression, anxiety, family and marital problems, and job performance difficulties. PECO employees were a racially diverse group with positions from high-level management to unskilled workers, and an age range from 25 to 60. This was a particularly difficult time because there was a company-wide reorganization where thousands of jobs were being eliminated.

Tabor Children’s Services, 6 months, Philadelphia, PA. Provided individual therapy and psychological testing for African-American Children from ages 5 to 17. The children referred to this agency were either in long-term foster care or were adopted. These children resided in the inner city with many having experienced multiple foster placements, and early and severe trauma. Some issues included abandonment, physical and/or sexual abuse and severe disfigurement.

Keystone Center, 1 year, Wallingford, PA. Provided intensive, individual therapy to a diverse population of adults and adolescents during their stay at this Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Hospital. Among the issues encountered were physical and sexual abuse, Eating Disorders, Schizophrenia, impulsiveness, sexual dysfunction and identity confusion all of which were treated in conjunction with drug and/or alcohol addiction. The position also included psychological and supervisory support to the staff. In addition, family or couples therapy was provided, or psychological testing was administered where deemed appropriate.

Practicum Placements

Family Counseling Service of Somerset County, 1 year, Bound Brook, NJ. Provided individual, couple and family therapy to adults, adolescents and children. This family service agency served a predominately working- to middle-class population.

Douglass College Office of Psychological Services, 1 year, Rutgers University. Provided individual therapy to the Douglass College and Mason Gross School of Arts student body. Some of the problems treated included Eating disorders, physical and/or sexual abuse, family problems, drug or alcohol abuse, academic difficulties, bereavement, characterological disorders and sexual identity issues.

Carrier Foundation, 1 year, Belle Mead, NJ. The position in this inpatient psychiatric setting involved administering  psychological tests to a population that ranged from adolescence to geriatrics, and included a diversity of psychiatric problems such as Eating disorders, Schizophrenia, Anxiety Disorders, Oppositional Defiant Disorders and severe Depression. Was also involved in observing and running groups that involved alcohol and drug abuse, Depression, Schizophrenia and Anxiety  Disorders.

Research Experience

Contextual attributes and categorical memory retrieval at 6 months. Supervised by Dr. Carolyn Rovee-Collier and Dr. Harlene Hayne.

Categorization and categorical memory attributes in 6-month-olds. Paper and thesis defense in April, 1989. Supervised by Dr. Carolyn Rovee-Collier and Dr. Gary Shyi. The project involved designing the study, contacting the parents and collecting, analyzing and interpreting the data from 70 subjects. The final paper was submitted to a university-wide committee of faculty members. 

Publications

Shields, P.J. & Rovee-Collier, C. (1992). Long-term memory for context-specific information at 6 months. Child Development, 63, 175-214.

Rovee-Collier, C., Schecter, A, Shyi, G., & Shields, P. (1992). Perceptual identification of contextual attributes and infant memory retrieval. Developmental Psychology, 28, 307-318.

Presentations

Shields, P., Schecter, A., & Rovee-Collier, C. (1988, Nov). Contextual attributes and memory retrieval at 6 months. Presented at the meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, Toronto, Canada.          

Shyi, G., Schecter, A., Rovee-Collier, C.,& Shields, P. (1989, June). Memory retrieval of contextual attributes at 6 months. Presented at the American Psychological Society, Alexandria, VA.

Shyi, G., Schecter, A., & Shields, P. (1990, April). Contextual alterations and memory retrieval at 6 months. Presented at the meeting of the International Society for Infant Studies, Montreal.

Continuing Education

More than 90 Continuing Education credits.

Memberships

American Psychological Association (19yrs past member), Pennsylvania Psychological Association (9yrs), Lehigh Valley Psychological Association: Treasurer (2yrs) and Chair, Continuing Education (4yrs), Full Member (8yrs).